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Question from Lou:

In the following problem, [(7)/(x+2)]-[(x+8)/(4-x^2)]+[(3x-2)/4-4x+x^2)]
what steps do you use to convert the middle portion to become +[(x+8)/(-4+x^2)]?
The answer to the problem is supposed to be (11x^2-18x+8)/(x+2)(x-2)^2

Lou,

The middle term is

which can be written as

At this point multiply the numerator and denominator by -1 to obtain

I hope this helps,
Penny

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